Imagery of the Month – Fort McMurray Fire Roars On

The Fort
McMurray Fire is still making headlines and shows no signs of slowing down more
than three weeks after it began. The devastating path of the fire has burned
over 2018 square miles and destroyed some 2,400 homes and buildings. Wildfire
Manager Chad Morrison is expecting weeks, if not months, of fighting the fire
as it continues its path North crossing over from Alberta into Saskatchewan.
Hot, dry weather conditions combined with only millimeters of moisture on the
southern end of the fire haven’t helped containment efforts.

NASA continues to aid the firefighting effort
by capturing a vast amount of Imagery over the fire from their Modis, Landsat
8, and Suomi NPP
satellites (shown below). The sensors on the satellites allow penetration of
the clouds and smoke and make it possible to see hotspots using thermal and IR
bands. This helps those managing the firefighting efforts to deploy assets in areas
where there are hotspots, regardless of the smoke of cloud coverage. The imagery captured also
aides in the recovery efforts and allows the government to widely asses the
areas burned and see what has survived the blaze.

Clear weather aligned with Suomi NPP’s flight
over Fort McMurray on May 24th giving a spectacular view of the fire.
The image shows the sheer size of the burn and the intensity at which it
continues to burn.

The Image above has
been processed, making it easy to identify the burn scar, as well as see where
the fire continues to roar near the North side of the scar. Having both thermal
and visible imagery makes it possible to classify cloud, smoke, land, and then
the active blaze itself.

Though the Suomi Image
is my image of the month, there was one additional image from Joshua Stevens at
NASA Earth Observatory from May 12th that shows another close perspective from
Landsat 8 of the burn scar itself surrounding Fort McMurray and the fire
burning to the South/Southwest.

The contrast of the
burn scar and surrounding healthy vegetation shows the extent the fire has
scorched this area. Hopefully, additional wildfire crews that have been
approved, and cooperating weather, will help get the upper hand on the blaze in
the coming weeks. Containing the fire is just the first step in getting the
residents of Fort McMurray on the road to rebuilding their town.